Category: Publishing

Or, Romance Writers Of America Are Hosting Their National Conference This July

RWA 2016

I’m thrilled to announce I will be attending the Romance Writers of America’s national conference this July! It will be a packed weekend of panels, author signings, and meeting new and old friends. I can’t wait!

If you’ll be there, too, we really must catch up.

In all my excitement, I pulled some photos of past RWA conferences. Enjoy!

My swag flyer from RWA National 2013 (Atlanta, GA).

At a bus stop during the 2006 RWA national conference (Atlanta, GA).

Before going downstairs at the 2013 RWA national conference (Atlanta, GA).

Nora Roberts ran out of books to sign at an RWA national conference (year forgotten) so she posed for photos with fans, instead.

Or, Why I Decided to Create an Audiobook Version of Spell of Summoning

Converting my first novel in the Dark Caster Series into an audiobook made me more nervous and way more scared than publishing it in its current digital form. My inner pessimist went wild:

What if it sounds awful?

What if the voice actor sucks?

What if it doesn’t sell well and then I look like a loser to my producing partner?

I’m a bit of a worrier.

Before I lost any more sleep, I logged onto iTunes and downloaded my first audiobook–Relentless Seduction–a paranormal romance by Jillian Burns. I listened to it in the car on my iPad, and I loved it! My new favorite thing to do on road trips is listening to audiobooks.

ACX.com, an Amazon company, is a user friendly one stop shop for uploading your novel and hiring a producer to create the audio version. The technical, contract style language made me a little hesitant to move forward, but I agreed to the site’s terms and opened Spell of Summoning as a new project. I could have waited for a producer to find me and offer to record my novel, but I’m impatient, so I listened to pre-recorded auditions. After some trial and error I decided I wanted a young woman with a general American accent and an engaging voice that I could happily listen to for hours on end.

I was lucky to find a talented young actress, Elizabeth Siedt, right away who agreed to produce the audiobook.

Unlike traditional “books on tape,” there were no upfront costs. Similar to publishing your digital book with Amazon, you and the producer receive a percentage of the sales in exchange for selling the audiobook exclusively at Audible.com, iTunes, and Amazon.com.

Or, Why I Chose to Self-Publish an eBook

The #1 (and really only reason): Control

A few years ago self-publishing was called “vanity” publishing and was something to be ashamed of. And if you didn’t feel sufficiently ashamed, other writers would help you get there. It meant you’d given up on ever climbing from the slush pile of a big, New York publisher and you just wanted to see your novel in print already, even if you had to pay for the pleasure.

Thank God for Amazon and their Kindle (and Barnes & Noble and their Nook, and Apple and their iBooks) because they not only revolutionized how we buy and read books, but they granted authors power. More power than we’ve ever had in the history of publishing. We don’t need an agent or a big name publisher to get our stories in front of readers. All we need is that special novel we’ve dreamed of printing, some technical savvy, and the desire to have people other than your parents and your spouse read it.

Once I decided to publish my novel, Spell of Summoning, electronically, on my own terms, my muse burst with so many new lovable characters and plot twists in fresh, never-dreamed of stories I couldn’t keep them all straight. I’m more excited by writing now than I have ever been. I’m crazy inspired to write and create and publish, and the best part is I’m in control of my author’s journey, every step.